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Distopie in die grafiese roman : V for Vendetta as voorbeeld

Nienaber, J. E. (2008-03)

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2008.

Thesis

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis examines the genre of dystopian fiction in the graphic novel, V for
Vendetta in which a futuristic police state, run by a totalitarian regime is portrayed.
Since V for Vendetta draws on a number of other dystopian texts, New Historicist
theory is employed which begins its analysis of literary texts by attempting to look at
other texts as well as the historical context in which it originated, to aid in the
understanding of that text. Therefore, V for Vendetta with its thorough character
development and multi-dimensional storyline that the larger format of the graphic
novel allows, is studied alongside other highly regarded novels. The characteristics of
the nightmarish anti-utopia is identified and analysed in V for Vendetta by looking at
real examples of totalitarian regimes from history. The chapters are divided into what
I identified as the main themes of the totalitarian dystopia.
Chapter one explains the concept of the utopia in order to grasp the concept of
dystopia, and more specifically, the Totalitarian dystopia. Chapter two looks at the
social structure of V for Vendetta as well as the common Totalitarian dystopia.
Chapter three discusses the issue of censorship which is a recurring theme in
dystopian fiction. Chapter four examines the manner in which the totalitarian regime
manipulates the populace of the dystopia through propaganda. Chapter five discusses
the systems of surveillance and lack of privacy in the Totalitarian dystopia and a
chapter on the protagonist in dystopia concludes this study.